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The tools and technology to acquire, retain, and grow a brand’s best customers are proliferating and advancing personalization and real-time insights at a dizzying pace. For those of us who design strategies for the most loyal customers, it’s exhilarating to imagine the possibilities. But the truth is, we also harbor equal fear that the growth of CRM technology is shrinking customer relationships. Real relationships, not just the “I engaged in a piece of targeted content” kind of relationships.
The “R” in CRM has persisted because it is essential to keeping and growing customers. As in real life, a connection does not make a relationship. And a relationship—as many of us may know only too well—can also be one-sided or imbalanced. The best customer–brand relationships are like the best human relationships: two-way, built on trust and mutuality, forged through bonds that make you an enduring part of one another’s existence.
Building meaningful relationships with customers is essential for real growth. As technology advances and reshapes the customer experience, brands must adjust their relationships with customers too. Learn about what’s new and changing in loyalty marketing in our conversation with Let’s Talk Loyalty host, Paula Thomas.
Bond experts, Alie Donnelly and Sean Claessen highlight findings from our The Loyalty Report 2022 and share the importance of how brands are acknowledging societal issues as a result of a shift in consumer expectations. Learn how brands can break away from the pack in our latest podcast.
For too many, it’s a program, not a strategy.
Loyalty programs can be exceptionally effective at engaging customers. Before you say, “Thanks, Captain Obvious,” hear us out. Yes, we do realize the loyalty industry has undergone cycles of innovation…and reinvention, we think it’s time for another.
Successful loyalty programs naturally encourage brands to replicate elements of the success: one more visit, one more item in the basket, one more dollar of spend. For some, that formula keeps on giving, but for many, there’s a struggle afoot in their footfall. We just didn’t know how many until recently.
As featured in Loyalty 360
Keep up with an innovative mobile loyalty strategy
Loyalty—it’s in your customers’ pockets and at their fingertips. Smart brands are acquiring, engaging, and retaining customers with a loyalty strategy that harnesses the simplicity and readily-adopted nature of mobile. Here are some ideas on how leverage new integrations in mobile technology to personalize and enrich your customers’ journey.
Back in 1997 when I began to lead a loyalty project for Shoppers Drug Mart with the code name “ASA” (an acronym for Acetylsalicylic acid), little did I know that 20 years later we would be witnessing the evolution of Canada’s favorite and most successful loyalty program. This past week’s announcement of the merger of these two iconic loyalty programs makes great business sense for the brands and their customers. The Shoppers Optimum program was originally tested in Kingston, Halifax and Calgary over a 16-month period. Towards the end of the pilot in 1999, approval was granted to launch the Shoppers Optimum Program nationally.
Loyalty Programs are critical to fostering effective Customer Engagement strategies for brands. They enable Customer acquisition, onboarding, engagement, retention, and even win back a brand’s Customers. Many strategic brand marketers have made their Loyalty Programs a key business imperative and have invested significant financial and human capital against this important endeavor. We often see many Loyalty Programs underperform or even fail because of poor Program design and planning. When designing or renovating your Loyalty Program, marketers should avoid:
Now in its seventh year, the
Loyalty Report 2017 reveals that consumers have reached their Program engagement threshold despite an upward trend in new Program memberships. Our research finds that new program enrollment has grown by 31% in the past four years to 14.3 Programs per member; yet, only 6.7 Programs are active. This means that if your Program is not engaging or properly rewarding Members for their devotion, your Program is at risk and needs work.
A poor experience can significantly affect Member satisfaction, which can have a direct impact on spend, choice, advocacy, and retention, so it’s critical that you do everything possible to be among the active 6.7 Programs. Here are five ways to ensure your Program makes the cut.
Yes, brands are dazzling customers with virtual and augmented reality, interactive screens and AI-powered everything, yet this provides an opportunity for brands to differentiate through the emotional value customers gain from their entire purchase experience.
It means brands need to get better at being emotional. Customers want “emotional luxury” derived from feeling recognized, special, and known; yet, only 20% of consumers say they feel special and recognized by a brand representative. This is a massive, untapped opportunity for brands to better engage with consumers.
Almost all currency-based consumer loyalty Program designs inherently house a financial liability, which in many cases has a material impact on a brand’s balance sheet. Generally speaking, a brand incurs liability for a future loyalty Program reward as soon as it issues the Program’s currency (e.g., points, miles, credits, stars, etc.) to a Program Member. From an income statement perspective, there is a reduction in revenue as soon as the currency is issued to a Program Member. As such, the brand cannot account for the full sale, since a percentage will need to be remunerated in the form of a reward (or dividend) back to the Program Member upon redemption. The accounting principles which govern financial liability management are not for the faint of heart, and they more than often create an ongoing level of tension between a brand’s CFO and CMO. CFOs wish to minimize their currency liability and resulting financial exposure, while CMOs wish to issue currency to incent incremental transactional behaviors with the aspiration of maximizing Member redemptions.
